Help me build a damn ship please!

[TrinityHere]

No matter what I try. Either it bobs too much and the propellers wont stay underwater, or it keep capsizing, or the thing doesn't withstand a single shot. I need some help.

[Awesome Joe Possum]

teaching how to build a ship is hard to do because every one has there own style...how i have been learning how to build is I download a ship that has a simaler style that i like and i slowly take it apart bit by bit and then try to recreate it i would do this a few times to get down how the blocks are used. (now i know its not ideal because it is time consuming but it is a way to learn how to build)

[Mortus Eclipse]

Don't build to light. The lighter the ship, the more likely it is to bob up and down.

Keep the center of mass as close to the bottom of your ship as possible. Use steel on the bottom, placing lead or heavy armor as possible to act as ballast. Then build/fill your hull from the bottom up while trying to keep the heaviest stuff at the bottom and work up through the deck. Try to leave more open area as you move up on large ships or more buoyant materials like wood or light alloy as you go up.

If you have enough weight and your CoM low enough this should solve a good portion of your bobbing and capsizing problems.

For defenses consider the enemies your ship will be facing. Shield are almost always effecting at repelling some of the damage from projectile weapons and missiles. Smoke screens are often better against lasers and also messes with laser guided missiles. If you have plenty of power consider LAMs of missile and CRAM defense. If you don't try to make sure your shields are placed far enough out to minimize damage from inertial fused crams and frag missiles. CWIS guns or interceptor missiles can be used to provide additional missile protection if you don't have power left over after setting up your shields.

[Radioactive]

If the propellers won't stay underwater, why not just add weight to your floor / keel / around the outer shell?

There are alternatives such as using propellers / hydrofoils or such to level the ship, too.

[breakthrough]

Here is a drag-optimal box with a simple external keel and a basic implementation of all the defensive subsystems.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=792483399
There are other ways of building good boats, but this one should be fairly easy to reverse engineer and build your own examples from.

[colonelmustardgas3]

Teaching somebody how to build in FtD is like telling somebody what their favorite genre of music should be. Everyone has a personal style. However there might be some tips to help.

1) build wide: building wider makes boats harder to capsize, and allows for more deck room, and therefore more weaponry.

2)Build low: don't go putting some Isengard size bridge on a ship. The lower (and lighter) deck protrusions are, the less roll your vehicle will have

3)build heavy: Don't be afraid to use some metal or heavy armor (although I would suggest being more conservative with the latter). Light ships are prone to flipping, and often do not sit low enough to have proper propulsion. Build such that at least 3m of the ship is underwater at ALL times.

4)Anticipate: This is a bit more broad, but probably the most important thing to remember. If you are finding that conventional remedies can't fix an issue, think outside of the box. For instance, you will notice that if hit, small boats will rise their bows out of the water. When keels didn't work, I resorted to using jet stabilizers, and some counter pitch thrusters (ACB that turns on jets at certain pitch or roll). If your boat won't float, even with air pumps, try helium pumps. Because helium is so light, it will almost always stay above sea level.

[Matt]

if your ship is moving too much with the waves consider one of the old ways of fixing this dating back 1000s of years
1. Bigger ships
This really started in china, but is still in use today, if your ship extends longer than the trough between the waves, then you will be much more stable.
2. Deep Keels
Mostly the European solution, having a deep and heavy keel moves the center of mass far below the boyant part of the ship, making it self righting if it rolls.
3. Catamerans or pontoons
This solution is ideal for small cheap ships that need a shallow draft, and has been used by almost ever civ for at least 4000 years.

4. advanced control systems
much harder, and I do not recomend this method.

[Laigon ♥]

Just lumping a load of lead on the bottom will help massively with turning and stability. Also make sure your propulsion isn't gonna pop up out the water by building it low. As for taking a hit try using 2 wood then metal for a three thick hull. Oh also having a sloped hull with a flat base apart from the nose seems to work for me and also like others have said the bigger and heavier the boat the better it'll be in the water.

[VladK02]

All new players build simply too small.

A ship needs to be like 100-150 blocks in length, and like 15-20 in width, and like 15-20 blocks deep, at a minimum. Thats a good corvette. Good start. Metal hull, inside a second layer of alloys. 2 large props.

Anything smaller - frankly, useless unless in a swarm.

All these problems you listed - all this goes away once a ship is large and heavy enough.

[jaxxia]

yup go for batle ship style go check some real one and try doing ther hull

[Oberic]

I just follow some general rules and hope for the best.
1. Wide boats are more stable.
2. Keep the weight low (center of mass at or slightly below the water line means less wobble).
3. Hydrofoils on the bottom (turn them sideways) controlled by ACBs are actually amazing, and allow you to make sharper turns without tipping completely over.

[colonelmustardgas3]

Originally posted by VladK02:

All new players build simply too small.

A ship needs to be like 100-150 blocks in length, and like 15-20 in width, and like 15-20 blocks deep, at a minimum. Thats a good corvette. Good start. Metal hull, inside a second layer of alloys. 2 large props.

Anything smaller - frankly, useless unless in a swarm.

All these problems you listed - all this goes away once a ship is large and heavy enough.

Not necessarily true. I have had creations that are 30 by 15 take on large targets and win. Two interceptors (small, light vehicles but armed to the teeth) have cleared half of the DWG. Corvettes are fun, until you run into small craft. Big guns are too slow and far between to finish them off effectively. If you have the AI set up right, they will dismantle large ships.

[Tonatsi]

I guess it depends on your way of thinking. I have had the game for a year now, and I still can't make a ship look and function right... ONTO SATELLITES

[jaxxia]

can somone aswer this wy the game lag this much recently serious
i cant build in designer it lag every time i put a piece on the moddel it lag out for like 20 sec

[pizzasheepz]

Originally posted by jaxxia:

can somone aswer this wy the game lag this much recently serious
i cant build in designer it lag every time i put a piece on the moddel it lag out for like 20 sec

The game only runs on a single core, but I have heard that in the next update, that it will have dual core support.

[jaxxia]

Originally posted by pizzasheepz:

Originally posted by jaxxia:

can somone aswer this wy the game lag this much recently serious
i cant build in designer it lag every time i put a piece on the moddel it lag out for like 20 sec

The game only runs on a single core, but I have heard that in the next update, that it will have dual core support.

ok cause i play on my i5 computer he never lag this much before canot work on my project w all those lag i put a single piece and he take 20sec to continue if he dont crash serious i start to get realy mad now i know it in devlopment but i play the stable branch the only thing i demand it to be able to play serious